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In 2009, she collapsed while making lunch and was taken to hospital, where she was diagnosed with a blood clot on her brain.

On the morning of her death, a neighbour recalled that she had heard her mother shout out just after breakfast that something had happened to her daughter.

"People immediately rushed over to their home," said the neighbour, who gave her name as Ms Zhang. "I saw Yao lying on the bed but she was not breathing. Her sisters rushed back home too, and soon afterwards the doctor announced she had passed away. Her mother cried until she passed out, and then her brother, Yao Deqing, drove her mother to Hefei to stay with him."